Guys, anyone know where I can lay my hands on a 360 controller for a lefty? My nephew got a 360 for christmas and is struggling with using the buttons with his right hand, any suggestions welcome.

I suggest practice and more practice. I'm left-handed too but I play video games like a right-handed player because the controls of most arcade games and the default controllers of all consoles have always been geared towards right-handed players. Heck, I've struggled with the few left-handed arcade setups I've come across.

Well, I could swap the stick orientation for him, so the stick functions are reversed, but I've never even seen a button and stick reversal in the modding scene, no less commercially. It would require totally reengineering the PCB.

I think he's better off using a normal controller anyway. What if a new console comes out and he buys it? Chances are more than likely that he won't be able to find another lefty controller for quite sometime.

I am left-handed too, and after searching around a bit I found three realistic options, one possible, and one fallback option.

1. LeftHandedly.com in Berkshire, UK 2. Bog1eman@yahoo.com using a site at: http://www.geocities.com/xequals16/ which redirects to http://www.teknoguild.com/ 3. NorthernGames with no web store front and no direct email address. 4. Darkrogue who noted that he mods controllers and to PM him for more info. 5. Team Llamma.com which sadly did not appear to be doing production work on swapping sticks, just tutorials.

The problems and advantages of each became apparent quickly. 1. LeftHandedly.com in Berkshire, UK had internal company reasons to stop producing controller mods completely. They left only a very small caveat added about possibly coming back at some indeterminate time in the future. This happened just as I was getting set to order one myself, and would have ordered one, if they had one to sell, but no joy...

2. Bog1eman@yahoo.com / teknoguilld.com Ready and willing with additional config options too. Swapping triggers and thumbstick buttons, slide switches to return settings to normal too. Best of all he said he could swap the 'Left Shoulder' button and 'A' button. (Permanent 'Bumper Jumper' layout)

This solves a major problem for Lefty's using "standard" button layouts, since 'Jump' is usually mapped to 'A'. With Jump on the 'A' button, you must stop forward movement and aiming, to reach across/over the right thumb on the right thumbstick and plant it correctly the right time to resync with the thumbstick control, to allow you to move and jump simultaneously. Meantime your left stick has been unattended, and your virtual self has been starring blindly ahead, at the ground, or sky.

3. NorthernGames had with no web store front, no direct email, but could be reached through Game Trading Zone 'http://gametz.com/user/northerngames.html' He was quite willing to do the stick mods, but not revert switches. He had quite a bit of mod'ing experience, and generally good rep on the boards he used. He was also willing to do the 'Left Bumper' to 'A' button swap, but had no info/schematics/drawings on how, so if I had the info...

4. Darkrogue was too difficult to reach, with no web page, no email address, no other posts on other sites about the subject, etc.

5. Team Llamma did not seem to be interested in going production, plus their tutorial was on a wired controller, and I definitely wanted mine wireless.

In the end, I went with, and would recommend, Bog1eman@yahoo.com / teknoguilld.com. I used a new black wireless controller, swapped the sticks and thumbstick buttons, swapped the 'Left Shoulder' and 'A' buttons, added slider switches to reverse the button changes, and also added two more new buttons for 'B' and 'X' on the underside of the case, right where the tips of my middle fingers rest.

The final job is really clean, so sweet you have to look carefully twice to notice any difference at all, but to me, it makes all the difference in the world. So many shooters with no, or pathetic options for changing the controls to a left-handed mode, now work fine, as-is. Default sticks (with invert) - Default buttons. Whoowhoo! Thank you Bog1eman!

It wasn't cheap, but after all these years of frustration, it felt a bargain to get controller that would never leave me as a lefty, at the complete [lack of] mercy of the game developers.

I have never known, nor am connected with him in any way, except to be a very happy customer. I'm posting this here because this board was one where I eventually made some of the contacts listed above.

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